King Eider in the morning

[Steen Torner]

I spend 4-5 hours each morning during three days at a floating hide in Baatsfjord harbour in the North of Norway laying flat on the ground photographing beautiful arctic sea ducks. This King Eider was photographed on the last day. From the previous morning I had noticed a reflection from a light spot on a Building creating a beautiful reflection in the Water. Therefore, I spend the first hour this morning waiting for a King Eider to pass. Finally, I got the Photo I had visualised the day before.

The Photo was shot on 11 March 2014. ISO 2000 and 1/400 sec at f/4.5, Canon 5D Mark III with EF 300 mm f/2.8L IS USM and 1.4 extender (420 mm) on a ground pod. Cropped from 5760 x 3840 to 3962 x 2981 as I like the beautiful King Eider to fill up the frame.

[William Dickson]

Lovely capture Steen. Maybe the BG is taking away the presence of the eider a little.

[arash_hazeghi]

excellent low angle and I like the specular highlights in the BG. The whites are good but the blacks are blocked (have no detail).

TFS

[vishaljadhav]

the reflections make it very dramatic, very well thought of image
i love the bird first time for me seeing image of this one
if in RAW have you tried to over expose it around 1/2 stop may help to get the black to reveal details

[Simon Wantling]

Really like the highlights in the water. Nice image.

[Andy Shepherd]

I think this is a gorgeous image, I love those specular highlights. Your exposure is spot on IMO and works perfectly with the BG. Great work, Steen.

[Steen Torner]

Thanks for your comments - especially about the lack of details in the black. I had reduced the exposure by 1 stop in order to get a darker looking image as I find it creates a more pleasing image. However, the downside of this was the lack of details in the black. I have now made a compromise and only reduced the exposure by 1/2 a stop.

Regards Steen